Nanchang’s Smoking Ban Stubbed Out

One Chinese city’s bold attempt to ban indoor smoking seems to have gone up in smoke.

Associated Press

A smoker lighting up outside an underpass in Shanghai (March 2010).

Nanchang, a city about 800 kilometers southwest of Shanghai, was scheduled to vote this past Friday that would have banned indoor smoking in all public places as well as restaurants, bars and offices. As China Real Time reported last week, the law would have been the toughest of its kind, resulting in fines of 50 yuan, or $7.55, for individual violators and up to 5,000 yuan for company owners failing to enforce the law.

In the event, lawmakers watered down the legislation in attempt to pass it. They eased restrictions in some venues such as office buildings to partial smoking bans and also delayed implementation in restaurants and entertainment establishments to 2015 from 2013, according to Xinhua. Then, after all that, the lawmakers delayed the vote. It hasn’t been announced when there might be a new vote.

The reason behind the stall? Lawmakers are concerned about enforcement difficulties, potential backlash from the public, and economic loss for establishments like bars and restaurants, according to public health officials familiar with Chinese tobacco control efforts.

“I think the point we need to make here is that the watered down half-measures are actually more difficult to enforce,” said Sarah England, head of the Tobacco-Free Initiative at the World Health Organization in China.

In countries where smoking bans have been implemented, enforcement of the laws typically rests on self-enforcement by the public. With only a partial ban, it often isn’t clear to people if they have the right to insist that a peer stop smoking, according to Dr. England. And, fears about potential economic repercussions of smoking bans are common when such legislation is introduced, but there usually isn’t such fall-out, say experts.

Enforcement may be an uphill battle, but it’s not impossible, says said Gan Quan, a senior project officer with the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. In the run-up to the 2008 Olympics and during the Games, officials clamped down on indoor smoking in Beijing. The effort’s impact wasn’t permanent, but it was a successful trial run, said Mr. Gan. With a good media campaign to create public awareness and fining at random, Nanchang and other cities could implement the law, said Mr. Gan.

The Chinese Ministry of Health’s focus on health-care reform has been its priority in recent years and diverted attention from the tobacco issue. But with the overhaul well underway, national anti-smoking legislation may be in the works.

“It’s not an unreasonable expectation” to see it on the legislative agenda within the next 12 months, according to Dr. England.

Controlling tobacco use has been a challenge in China, where smoking is an integral part of business culture, the brand of cigarettes offered is considered a sign of status and marketing still glamorizes smoking. In addition, the government owns its tobacco industry and takes a cut from tobacco sales.

“The fact that the Chinese government owns the tobacco industry makes the government’s actions more complicated, but doesn’t alter what’s necessary,” said Dr. England.

The country was already supposed to be well into its efforts to comply with WHO tobacco use guidelines, which China along with other countries ratified at a WHO tobacco control convention in 2004. Under the agreement (PDF), countries were supposed to implement smoking bans in public indoor spaces and on transit, in addition to other measures, by this coming January 2011, according to Dr. England.

China is in the early stages of dealing with tobacco control but its progress parallels other countries that used to have high smoking rates, including the U.S., according to Matt Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, based in Washington D.C.

“The evidence is absolutely clear that tobacco use is a major cause of death and disease in China,” said Mr. Myers. “Because the science is so clear today in China, China should be able to tackle this problem much more rapidly than countries did when the science was just developing.”

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